The Sims 4 Get to Work

The Sims 4 Get to Work Expansion Pack

The Sims 4: Get to Work is the very first expansion pack released for The Sims 4, launching the game’s long line of paid DLC. Announced on February 4, 2015, it arrived in North America on March 31, 2015, and in Europe on April 2, 2015 — just a few months after the base game’s original 2014 release. The pack draws heavily on gameplay ideas from The Sims 2: Open for Business and The Sims 3: Ambitions, reworking them for The Sims 4 with three fully playable active careers and a return to hands-on retail management. As the pack that kicked off The Sims 4’s expansion cycle, Get to Work also set an early precedent: that Maxis intended to layer deep, systemic gameplay on top of the base game rather than just cosmetic content, a philosophy later packs would continue to build on.

This expansion introduces three active careers—Detective, Doctor, and Scientist—and allows players to own and operate retail businesses. It also adds a new neighborhood, Magnolia Promenade, which comes with pre-built shops, and incorporates gameplay elements inspired by The Sims 2: Open for Business and The Sims 3: Ambitions.

The Sims 4 Get to Work at a Glance

• New Traits: Sickness Resistance (Reward Trait)
• New Achievements: Aliens Among Us, Carried Away, Clued In, Double Life, Down To A Science, Patients Are A Virtue, Picture Perfect, Piece of Cake, Very Special Delivery, Autopsy-Turvy, Death of a Salesman, You-Reek-A
• New Gameplay Features and Interactions: Male Sims and makeup, male pregnancy, hospital childbirth, determining baby gender, Easy Listening radio station, alien TV channel, retail venues, ability to buy and sell retail lots, notebook feature, Sims experiencing illnesses, appetizers, ability to adjust sale prices.
• New Skills: Cooking, Photography
• New Map: Magnolia Promenade
• New Collectibles: Volcanic rocks
• New Careers: Scientist, Detective, Doctor
• New Interactive Objects: Mannequins, digital cameras, photo studio

The Sims 4 Get to Work Careers

The highlight of this expansion is the introduction of active careers, allowing players to follow their Sims to work and directly control their actions.

Doctor Career

Begin as a Medical Intern and progress to surgeon. Diagnose patients, run tests, and perform life-saving procedures.

Detective Career

Patrol the streets, investigate crime scenes, gather evidence, interrogate suspects, and solve cases at the police station.

Scientist Career

Conduct experiments, collect specimens, and invent groundbreaking devices. Sims can create potions, gadgets, and even a wormhole generator that unlocks travel to Sixam.

Each career provides unique tasks that must be completed to earn promotions, making career progression interactive and rewarding.

The Sims 4 Retail Business Management

For Sims with entrepreneurial ambitions, Get to Work reintroduces retail gameplay. Sims can purchase a lot—either residential or vacant—and transform it into a thriving business.

• Business Panel: Manage operations through the “Owned Business Panel,” which tracks store hours, open/closed status, and sales.
• Customer Interaction: Customers browse items with a visible interest meter. Once filled, they make purchases, which can be processed by employees or the store owner.
• Business Variety: Players can establish diverse shops such as bakeries, bookstores, clothing boutiques, or art galleries. Nearly any item in the game can be sold, offering limitless customization.

The Sims 4 New Worlds and Hidden Locations

Magnolia Promenade

Magnolia Promenade is a compact neighborhood shipped with Get to Work. It contains four lots—three pre-built retail stores and one empty lot for player-owned businesses.

Although there are only four standard lots, the Police Station and Willow Creek Hospital also appear visually in the same plaza, though they function as separate sub-neighborhoods.

Magnolia Promenade Lots Details

Secret Hidden Neighborhoods

Office Site – Career Sub-Neighborhoods

Each active career has its own workplace sub-neighborhood:

• Police Station (Detective career)
• Hospital (Doctor career, also accessible during childbirth)
• Science Lab (Scientist career)

These areas are not accessible from the main map view and are collectively referred to as Office Site in the household calendar. With Seasons installed, the Police Station and Hospital can even experience different weather simultaneously, confirming they are separate sub-neighborhoods.

Lots – Career Workplaces

Police Station

A two-story building featuring jail cells, interrogation rooms, offices, showers, a small gym, and a kitchen. It cannot be edited in build mode without the bb.enablefreebuild cheat.

Willow Creek Hospital

A one-story hospital (with an inaccessible empty second floor) including patient testing rooms, a reception area, a surgery room, and a dining space. Pregnant Sims can visit during labor. Like the Police Station, it requires the bb.enablefreebuild cheat for editing.

Sixam Alien World

Sixam (an anadrome of Maxis) was referenced in The Sims 3 before becoming a hidden lot in Get to Work. Sims can travel to Sixam via the Electroflux Wormhole Generator (Scientist career) or by upgrading a rocket ship.

Exploration and Collectibles

• Three unique alien flora species
• Two exclusive crystals and metals (one can be refined into a new element)
• A six-piece geode collection with environment boosts

Visual Design and Atmosphere

Sixam features floating rocks, glowing alien pools, and the backdrop of an alien city. Another planet can be seen in the sky but is inaccessible. Sims can breathe freely without spacesuits.

Gameplay Effects

• Mobile phones do not function on Sixam.
• Vampires are immune to sunlight here (The Sims 4: Vampires).
• Players can build on a 20×20 lot using the bb.enablefreebuild cheat.

Aliens Return

Playable aliens return with enhanced customization and unique gameplay features.

• Appearance: Multiple skin tones (blue, green, purple) and glowing effects when experiencing strong emotions.
• Abilities: Exclusive interactions such as analyzing personalities, empathizing, erasing memories, and disguising themselves as ordinary Sims.
• Create a Sim Options: Unique presets, eyes, ears, skin tones, pointed ears, and alien-inspired makeup expand creative possibilities.

The Sims 4 Get to Work – All New Build Mode Items

With the Get to Work expansion pack, 292 items were added to Build Mode.

The Sims 4 Get to Work – All New CAS Items

With the Get to Work expansion pack, 210 items were added to Create-a-Sim (CAS).

The Sims 4 Get to Work Reviews & Player Feedback

Critical reception for Get to Work landed in solidly average territory. On OpenCritic, the pack holds a “Fair” rating from 13 critics, with an average score around 71 and a relatively low recommendation rate. Many reviewers praised the ambition of letting players actively follow their Sims into three distinct workplaces for the first time in the series, and singled out the retail system and photography skill as strong additions. At the same time, a recurring criticism was that career gameplay grew repetitive after a few playthroughs, that the Doctor career in particular felt underdeveloped compared to the Detective and Scientist tracks, and that frequent loading screens between the home lot and workplace broke up the pacing. Player reviews were more divided: some called it one of the strongest first expansions in the franchise, while others felt the added content didn’t fully justify the price given how much of it echoed earlier Sims titles.

Is The Sims 4 Get to Work Worth Buying?

For players who want more agency over their Sims’ careers rather than watching promotions happen off-screen, Get to Work remains a foundational pick — it’s the pack that first let Sims medicine, law enforcement, and science become genuinely playable professions. The retail system also adds a long-lasting sandbox layer, letting players build and run their own shops well beyond the initial novelty. It’s less essential for players who prioritize story and social gameplay over active minigames, since the workplace loops can feel repetitive over time. But for fans of hands-on, career-driven simulation, it’s still one of the more distinctive expansions in The Sims 4 lineup.